Conventional adhesive sheets, such as adhesive wallcovering, are made from a substrate, such as paper, coated with an adhesive. Positioning such sheets on surfaces, however, is often quite difficult because the sheets cannot be moved once they initially touch the surface. The adhesive that is conventionally employed prevents such movement even after application of only minimal pressure to the sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,331,729 describes an adhesive bonding product having microspheres sparsely, but uniformly, distributed over a pressure sensitive adhesive layer. The object containing the adhesive can be positioned on the surface to be adhered to prior to pressing against the object to make a firm bond. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,595 describes a pressure sensitive adhesive sheet having non-adhesive solid microparticles distributed over the surface of the adhesive layer.
Adhesive sheets made according to these patents, however, have no adhesive characteristics when initially applied to a surface. They only adhere to the surface upon application of substantial pressure, which strongly binds the sheet to the surface. The sheet cannot thereafter be repositioned. For this reason, it is very difficult for one person to align such sheets.
Also, uniformly distributing microparticles on the surface of adhesive sheets as described in these patents is extremely difficult.
An object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide an article containing a slippable surface which exhibits a low degree of tack and thereby permits easy movement during alignment of the article, but thereafter allows the article to be adhered to the surface by application of sufficient pressure.
It is also an object of the invention to provide an article that can be initially positioned by application of a small amount of pressure without strongly adhering the article to the surface. The article can than be repositioned, if necessary.
It is also an object of the invention to provide an article containing an adhesive having microparticles that are substantially uniformly dispersed throughout the adhesive, and which can be easily made.